From correspondent Elon Schoenholz

In the spirit of shameless self-promotion to spur a huge rush of Christmas, winter solstice, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa and Eid al-Adha sales for my “wonderful book” Down by the Los Angeles River (a bargain at only $17.95 – published by the good folks at Wilderness Press and available at good bookstores throughout the known universe, and of-course on-line,) Creek Freak presents the following, mostly-unedited email correspondence from my friend Elon Schoenholz. Elon is a photographer (check out his photo site with a fine photo blog) and one of the folks who (with me and Ron Milam who also blogs, sometimes about Ballona Creek) got the Los Angeles County Bicycle Coalition started. (If you’ve already got multiple copies of my book, you might want to do some holiday shopping at the LACBC’s virtual holiday store.)

Without further ado (and with fewer pesky hyperlinks), Elon’s correspondence:

Joe:

Nusia and Mrs. Schoenholz on the LA River stroller path... er, I mean bike path!

How are you? All’s well here. I went with my wife and daughter for yet another L.A. River walk guided by your wonderful book this past weekend. We walked the Glendale Narrows portion, AKA Frogtown from the writing on the walls and ground.

It was a beautiful day and we saw a ton of birds and were nearly attacked by an unaccompanied pit bull mix (ended without bloodshed) and otherwise had a fantastic time.

Some of our best family outings have been thanks to your book.

I hope you’re well.

-Elon

[At this point, I responded asking Elon if it would be ok for me to run his email in this here blog, and if Elon would provide a photo or three to accompany it.]

Joe:

Yeah, it was beautiful. We saw coots and ducks and geese (big), terns (I think) and at least one great white egret (very big); some locals fishing; the most graffiti I’ve ever seen in a single day. I hadn’t been on that stretch since the 2nd River Ride, and then I was too busy taking photos to notice anything.

What else would a founder of the LA County Bicycle Coalition want to photograph? Bike Parking along the river in Frogtown!

I didn’t take too many photos on our walk last weekend because I find it gets in the way of experience for me, but here are a few. I was particularly fascinated by the pastoral bike parking setup. Also, maybe you can make out the FOLAR sticker on the front of Nusia’s stroller. You sent it with the book.

I read your blog (found it through Erik and Kelly’s a couple of months ago) and enjoy it and would be absolutely amenable to that.

-E

[In the spirit of getting folks to the river: the Mountains Recreation and Conservation Authority’s Marsh Park is a good spot to start your Elysian Valley, also called Frogtown, river walk. The park is located at 2930 Marsh Street in Elysian Valley, Los Angeles 90039. It’s an excellent place to walk along and explore the mighty Los Angeles.]